We present a method for determining the detection efficiency of neutral atoms relative to keV ions. Excited D* atoms are produced by D-2 fragmentation in a strong laser field. The fragments are detected by a micro-channel plate detector either directly as neutrals or as keV ions following field ionization and acceleration by a static electric field. Moreover, we propose a new mechanism by which neutrals are detected. We show that the ratio of the yield of neutrals and ions can be related to the relative detection efficiency of these species. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Rights:Copyright 2015 AIP Publishing. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. The following article appeared in Ben Berry, M. Zohrabi, D. Hayes, U. Ablikim, Bethany Jochim, T. Severt, K. D. Carnes and I. Ben-Itzhak, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 86, 046103 (2015) and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4916953.